Fresh Triumphs From Mule Motorcycles

What can you say about Richard Pollock of Mule Motorcycles that hasn’t been said before? His bikes are a reflection of his personality: meticulous, detailed, hard-working, reliable, and with a no-bull attitude. So, it’s one of the perks of the job when someone like Richard gives you an inside look at some of his latest builds.

“Seems the Triumphs have become very popular. And for all the good reasons. Inexpensive to purchase stock, easy to make lighter faster, better handling and more powerful. Add to that you can make them look lots better than stock and you have a customizer’s dream bike.”– richard pollock

From Richard:
Over the past year I’ve been flooded with requests for Triumph builds and they are enthusiastically welcomed. Over the past 4-5 months, many of these at Mule have gotten to the “completed” status. Here are three that I really like.

The first one was the result of the “Scrambler style” request yet is based on a Thruxton (a café racer). It incorporates a JVB seat and rear fender combo with small side panels and front fender. High Ducati-style megaphones make for a delightful exhaust note. The front forks are from a 2012 Yamaha V-max and at 52mm had the springs and dampening tweaked to match the bike and future rider’s weight. A 6-piston Berringer front caliper grabs a hold of a Brembo 320mm rotor. Mule hubs front and rear shave off almost 20 lbs by themselves. Motor is stock, but with the pipes, small individual air cleaners and jetting makes about 70HP at the wheel. It’s tearing up the back roads near Hattiesburg, Mississippi as we speak.

The next one is one of the few bikes I’ve done for local San Diego riders. Again, starting as a Thruxton, we swapped in an R-1 front end with custom triple clamps, gauge bracket, exhaust, Mule hubs, Brembo 320mm rotors, Mule/Racetech shocks and a Mule seat kit. Tons of small details abound with attention paid mostly to wheels and suspension. A 5.5” x 17” rear rim has a 190 tire requiring a slight offset on the sprockets for tire to chain clearance. Up front there’s a 2.75” x 18” rim which is a bit smaller diameter than stock but leaves a wider footprint. A Motogadget Classic gauge gives all the pertinent information at a glance. Headlight is the standard HD Sportster unit. The paint work was done by Superbike Paint here in San Diego. David Tovar (SBK Paint), actually did the paint on all three bikes. On this bike, like the Scrambler, we stayed with the Berringer braking components, 2) 6-piston calipers with Berringer handlebar controls up top. Motor-wise, another stocker. However, this little number will be back next month for the big motor build to compliment the dialed chassis!

The black and white bike is my new favorite. It’s what I would call more of my standard streettracker build (if there is such a thing). Again Mule hubs, this time laced to 19” Sun rims with Goldertyre dirt track tires, seat kit, aluminum Trackmaster style tank, Ohlins shocks at the rear and at the front, we have an MV-Agusta front fork with custom triple clamps, 310mm Brembo rotor and an MV Nissin 6-piston caliper up front. We also modified a stock MV axle that is 35mm in diameter with a huge thru hole. Mule stainless 1.0” bars utilize stock switches with a Nissin radial master cylinder. A Sportster headlight hangs on a custom bracket which also retains an Acewell 1500 digital gauge. Speed and tachometer functions is where it begins and ends. This one has all kinds of motor upgrades with a 904cc kit, cams, headwork, ignition unit, 39FCR Keihin carbs and a custom exhaust with a highly modified aluminum silencer that is marketed for quad use. The bike goes fast, handles great, sounds great, stops quick and I love to just sit and stare at it. Only six more to go! Oh yea. And a bunch of Sportsters!